Virnette Reid Fowler

By editor

Created 05/08/2013 - 11:16

Virnette Reid Fowler, 94, died Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Midland. The family will receive friends from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. Thursday at Nalley-Pickle Welch Funeral Home, located at 3800 N. Big Spring in Midland. A private family service will take place on Friday at Trinity Memorial Park in Big Spring.

Adgie Virnette Reid was born Nov. 8, 1918, in Leola, Ark., three days before the Armistice ending World War I. Her father was Patrick Cleburne Reid. Her mother, Martha Catherine Samuel Reid (Katie), fell ill with the epidemic “Spanish Flu” of 1918 after giving birth, so baby Virnette was sent to live with her grandmother and aunt for the first months of her life.

She was the sixth of nine children and the last surviving member of those siblings, who included Christine, Worley, Eugene, Jesse, DeWitt, Sue Trammell, Harold and Forrest Reid.

The Reid family moved to Roby, Texas, in 1929. Virnette graduated from Palava High School in 1938 and moved to Sweetwater. A few years later, while volunteering at the Sweetwater USO, she met Staff Sergeant Peter Anthony Fowler, who was stationed at Camp Barkeley, south of Abilene. They married Feb. 16, 1944.

At the end of WWII, they moved to Pete’s hometown of Oakland, Calif., later moving to nearby San Lorenzo to start their family. They came back to Texas to live in Big Spring from 1961 until Pete’s death in 1995. Virnette then moved to Midland. She was a Methodist.

Survivors include a daughter, Catherine Fowler of Midland; and twins, Cynthia Wilson and husband Stephen of Denton and David and wife DiAnn McGuire Fowler of Midland. Six grandchildren remember her with love, Brian and Julie Fowler, Michael and Kelly Fowler, Robert and Jennifer Fowler, Isaac Hernandez, Ashley Wilson and Lauren Wilson. Her three precious great-grandchildren were Morgan, Addison and Jacob Fowler. She is also survived by one sister-in-law and numerous nieces and nephews and their extended families.

The family suggests memorials to the USO at USO.org or P.O. Box 9622, Washington D.C. 20090, or to a favorite church or charity.

Arrangements are under the direction of Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home & Crematory of Midland. Online condolences can be made at npwelch.com.